IF you're awake, alert and lucky; IF you're not distracted by your cell phone or your taco; IF you read all the signs and get in the correct lane in advance; and IF you slow down and look carefully to your left before you enter that quirky twin-ring roundabout at the N.C.S.U. Bell Tower on Hillsborough Street -- THEN you PROBABLY won't cause Crash Number 85.

Wait, I forgot a few ifs:

IF the drivers already in the roundabout are awake and alert, too; and IF they pick the correct lane and stay there so you can stay out of their way, THEN your chances of avoiding a crash are even better.

But as the Road Worrier reported today, many drivers are unlucky. ... [MORE]

Crash counts usually shrink dramatically at intersections where stop signs and stop lights are replaced with roundabouts.

But Raleigh police are seeing lots of crashes at the city's newest and most unusual roundabout -- the twin-ring spiral that opened eight months ago on Hillsborough Street at Pullen Road, next to the NCSU Bell Tower (see today's Road Worrier, with reader comments).

City officials will wait for a full safety study after the Bell Tower roundabout has been in use for a full year. A comparison count of crashes before and after is not available, but traffic engineers are concerned about what they've seen so far -- more than 40 crashes, without serious injuries. ... [MORE]

Choose your lane as you approach the twin-ring, two-lane Bell Tower roundabout on Hillsborough Street at Pullen Road (see today's Road Worrier column, with reader comments).

Which lane? Depends on where you are and where you're heading. Raleigh's only two-lane roundabout is not a simple concentric affair. It's asymmetrical, half circle and half spiral, one lane on the east side and two lanes elsewhere.

The bird's-eye view recalls the spiraling start of Dorothy's yellow-brick road to Oz. (She and her friends were cheerful when they started out, but they soon had trouble finding their way.)

The important things to know about this and all roundabouts: Yield and look to your left before entering. Traffic in the roundabout has the right of way.

For more details, check out the city of Raleigh's new instruction manual for the Bell Tower roundabout.

Raleigh's biggest traffic circle is now operational.

The circle, also known in some parts as a roundabout, or a rotary, is along the heavily-traveled stretch of Hillsborough Street adjacent to N.C. State's bell tower.

Go ahead and start making the "Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament!" jokes.

About the only thing less popular than City Manager Russell Allen's raise at Tuesday night's budget hearing was the Hillsborough Street roundabout project. One speaker told the City Council that instead of spending $11 million installing roundabouts on Hillsborough it should have used that money for something more useful, like beefing of city employees pay. The comment drew a standing ovation from much of the crowd, something even the most strenuous condemnations of Allen's raise couldn't do.

It will be interesting to see whether the Hillsborough Street project becomes an issue during this fall's election. The result of more than a decade of dialogue, the redevelopment plan for the street has its supporters. But it's clear the project has its critics. And many of those critics are likely to become more vocal as the street gets torn up and inconveniences drivers.

Of course, the completed project may end up being a smashing success. But that success won't reveal itself until long after the election.

Peter Batchelor, professor emeritus of architecture and urban design at N.C. State, has an interesting letter to the editor in today’s paper about the roundabouts planned for Hillsborough Street.

Batchelor argues that roundabouts are a good way for merging and moving vehicles through intersections, but they are not a pedestrian-friendly solution for the problematic intersections on Hillsborough Street. He says the roundabouts will not be able to accommodate the cyclists, skateboarders and rollerbladers who use the street.

“This dangerous and potentially lethal concept for a problematic intersection on Hillsborough Street needs to be re-examined by the City of Raleigh,” Batchelor writes. “Trendy as roundabouts may be in current planning circles, a far simpler and cost-effective solution was proposed more than 25 years ago: Extend Pullen Road straight through the intersection and connect directly to Oberlin Road.”  

Re-examining the roundabouts is no longer an option, as on Tuesday the City Council voted to spend about $9.9 million to construct the first phase of the project. Councilmen Philip Isley and Rodger Koopman were the only two who voted against the funding. Koopman argued that because of the economy it was the wrong time to go ahead with the project, while Isley has been loudly opposed to the roundabouts on Hillsborough since they were first proposed.

Only time will tell whether Batchelor is right about the roundabouts and Hillsborough Street. If he is, it will be a monumental embarrassment for the city. The Hillsborough project has been discussed and debated for years, and if it leaves drivers baffled about how to navigate the street it will have the exact opposite effect that officials intended.

Who knows, may the city will provide roundabout driving training for all residents with driver’s licenses. Of course, that would require the creation create of a roundabout mascot who can hang out with Neusie and Rainy.

The City Council also voted on Tuesday to spend $350,000 extending the Hillsborough streetscape project to a section of Oberlin Road in front of the Players’ Retreat sports bar, and $20,000 installing LED lights and a plug-in station for hybrid-electric vehicles. The $350,000 expenditure will make streetscape improvements to an area just down the road from the driveway of at-large Councilman Russ Stephenson's home.

Stephenson said after the meeting that he checked with the city attorney during the meeting about whether he needed to recuse himself from the vote and was told no.